title: Chemical-garden formation, morphology, and composition. II. Chemical gardens in microgravity.
abstract: We studied the growth of metal-ion silicate chemical gardens under Earth gravity (1 g) and microgravity (μg) conditions. Identical sets of reaction chambers from an automated system (the Silicate Garden Habitat or SGHab) were used in both cases. The μg experiment was performed on board the International Space Station (ISS) within a temperature-controlled setup that provided still and video images of the experiment downlinked to the ground. Calcium chloride, manganese chloride, cobalt chloride, and nickel sulfate were used as seed salts in sodium silicate solutions of several concentrations. The formation and growth of osmotic envelopes and microtubes was much slower under μg conditions. In 1 g, buoyancy forces caused tubes to grow upward, whereas a random orientation for tube growth was found under μg conditions.
authors.affiliation: Instituto Andaluz de Ciencias de la Tierra, CSIC-Universidad de Granada, Facultad de Ciencias, E-18071 Granada, Spain. julyan.cartwright@csic.es
authors.forename: Julyan H E
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Cartwright
authors.forename: Bruno
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Escribano
authors.forename: C Ignacio
authors.initials: CI
authors.lastname: Sainz-Díaz
authors.forename: Louis S
authors.initials: LS
authors.lastname: Stodieck
mesh_terms: D002122:Calcium Chloride / Q000737:chemistry; D002412:Cations / Q000737:chemistry; D002712:Chlorides / Q000737:chemistry; D003035:Cobalt / Q000737:chemistry; D017895:Manganese Compounds / Q000737:chemistry; D008855:Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; D009532:Nickel / Q000737:chemistry; D017640:Silicates / Q000737:chemistry; D013052:Spectrometry, X-Ray Emission; D014893:Weightlessness
chemical_list: D002412:Cations; D002712:Chlorides; D017895:Manganese Compounds; D017640:Silicates; D003035:Cobalt; C029938:nickel sulfate; D009532:Nickel; C018021:cobaltous chloride; C005691:sodium silicate; D002122:Calcium Chloride; C025340:manganese chloride